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Cisco Cloud Services Router vs MikroTik Cloud Router Switch comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 29, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Cloud Services Router
Ranking in Routers
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
MikroTik Cloud Router Switch
Ranking in Routers
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Ethernet Switches (16th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Routers category, the mindshare of Cisco Cloud Services Router is 4.8%, up from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is 7.6%, up from 7.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Routers Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
MikroTik Cloud Router Switch7.6%
Cisco Cloud Services Router4.8%
Other87.6%
Routers
 

Featured Reviews

VENKATESHREDDY - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate IT Director at Diligent Global
Manageable, provides excellent support, and easily integrates with other products
One central area for improvement in Cisco is its product line offering. Cisco has ISE and other products, such as DNS Center and other components. Instead of small to medium-sized customers purchasing devices and maintaining the devices, it would be great if customers could have subscriptions. A CAPEX/OPEX model instead of that Cisco code, where the pricing model is subscription-based, would give much better flexibility for the customers. The pricing and model for Cisco Cloud Services Router and other Cisco products could be improved. One good example of what I want to be added to the Cisco Cloud Services Router in its next version is for it to be more of a plug-and-play product. For example, Juniper has developed QR codes, so if you need to plug in a device, you scan from your phone and connect to the internet. That's it. You can provision the device remotely through the cloud orchestrator, so I want to see a similar function or feature in Cisco Cloud Services Router.
Andriejus Artamonovas - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist at a outsourcing company with 501-1,000 employees
Has supported deeper configuration through traffic mirroring and advanced VLAN setup
The main reason why MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is usually chosen is its raw performance to price ratio. In comparison to UniFi switches, MikroTik Cloud Router Switch can mirror all ports for traffic inspection for further traffic analysis, which UniFi cannot do. VLANs in MikroTik Cloud Router Switch are always useful. The way MikroTik implements VLAN-aware switching at the bridge level is hidden in the configuration. Making CRS work as a simple VLAN-aware switch requires deeper configuration, which is not intuitive. VLANs support individual interfaces not part of the bridge, allowing for double VLANing. You can create a VLAN interface in the interfaces context and also create a bridge interface, add physical ports, create VLANs for that bridge interface, and assign tagged and untagged ports and VLANs. Load balancing is one of the key components. The feature itself is quite efficient and works reliably on MikroTik Cloud Router Switch. The very basic setup is one of my favorites because they have their protocol where I can connect through the MAC address right on Layer 2, and I don't lose connectivity to the switch if I mess up with bridging or IP addressing.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It seems pretty stable. We have never had any issues with it."
"It provides peace of mind because it is a stable product that you aren't going to lose sleep over at night wondering if it will be running or not."
"AWS has a reference architecture to enable the Cisco routers in high availability and Transit VPC. This is a very powerful router and can enable us to use Transit VPC in AWS, and this is a very powerful feature that we use."
"It integrates well with the other products we're using. We have it with multiple windows like Palo Alto, Arista and it easily integrated with them."
"It is definitely scalable. It can handle a lot more traffic and group work compared to any other products that I've evaluated. It could easily scale a lot more than what I'm doing right now."
"What's best about Cisco Cloud Services Router is the support. It's excellent, and so far, no significant challenges. Another valuable feature of the product is easy integration with other products."
"It handles stress very well. We have not reached a point of needing to worry about its capabilities."
"The most valuable feature is the SNMP traps that I use to monitor the router and the availability of the network."
"The beauty of MikroTik is that you have flexibility with the routing parts."
"It is easy to set up."
"This solution is very similar to the on-premises version making it easy to use for those who know the architect."
"The traffic monitoring capabilities are excellent."
"The performance has been good."
"The router power is the most valuable aspect."
"The best aspect is that it remains affordable."
"The technical support for MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is superb."
 

Cons

"A CAPEX/OPEX model, where the pricing model is subscription-based, would give much better flexibility for the customers. The pricing and model for Cisco Cloud Services Router and other Cisco products could be improved."
"You can use this router in a scalable solution but it has its limitations."
"If you lose connectivity to the cloud, it is difficult to establish connectivity between hub and spoke."
"The ease of use within the AWS environment needs to improve. Sometimes, it is very esoteric in how you use it. Therefore, you have to learn to use it, then you are able to."
"It could grow or adapt to changes in the cloud. For example, cloud does not support autoscaling. When people want to grow, they have to do manual activities."
"It is too complex. It is not easy to set up, even with the documentation that they provided. It is a little confusing."
"Cisco Cloud Services Router could improve by having more features. It is lacking features, such as virtualization and containerization. Additionally, there should be increased security and connectivity between routers."
"I would like some deployment examples and guides specific to AWS VPCs and how to separate your subnets. Then, how they tie-in with the Internet gateway and any NAT services that we are running on our VPC. This would be extremely helpful."
"Proper LACP support, more software support for hardware capabilities, true wirespeed Layer 3 routing."
"Most of the time, the MikroTik Cloud Router Switch is stable. If I were to rate the stability on a scale of 1 to 10 where 10 is the best, I would give it a 5."
"MikroTik is mostly used by medium and small businesses, so the security is not as robust as Cisco."
"In medium to large sectors, there's a necessity for managing aspects like proxy firewalls."
"MikroTik Cloud Router Switch needs improvement in the area of security, although the recent models are addressing this."
"While some customers use MikroTik Cloud Router Switch as a firewall, it's not at an industry-level, though the basic features are adequate for many users who prefer it over purchasing other reputed firewall solutions."
"Technical support could be better."
"The initial setup is complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You do need to pay a licensing fee to use the solution. You can do a yearly or three-year subscription. The product itself is quite expensive. It would be ideal if they offered the product at a cheaper price."
"The pricing is fine, though it might have been cheaper going through a partner or doing a direct buy."
"The pricing is good for what it offers."
"Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace was easy; click a button and you have it."
"Cost is a big factor. We would like to see the price reduced."
"We never buy the product on the AWS Marketplace. We only download it. We always use BYOL. We never buy the license in the AWS Marketplace, because it's very expensive."
"The cost needs improvement. It is very expensive through the AWS Marketplace."
"Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace was easy. It was almost a one-click process to purchase CSR."
"This product has a one-time cost and there is no licensing fee."
"The price of the solution is fair and there is a one-time license purchase only."
"They came with the licensing when we purchased them."
"I consider it to be a cost-effective solution."
"The price is competitive."
"The licensing for MikroTik is great. It's easy to enter, especially for small businesses. Their model is great."
"I believe the price of the tool is high, but it is okay for the services we get from it."
"MikroTik is really cheap compared to the competitors."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Comms Service Provider
13%
Educational Organization
12%
Marketing Services Firm
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise10
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise5
Large Enterprise2
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about MikroTik Cloud Router Switch?
The tool has impacted our company's network costs and productivity in a perfect manner and percentage-wise, I can say it is 120 percent.
What needs improvement with MikroTik Cloud Router Switch?
It can be difficult to identify key functions for MikroTik Cloud Router Switch. I experience functionality limitations, particularly when trying to find specific features. It would be beneficial to...
 

Also Known As

Cisco CSR, Cisco Cloud Services Router 1000v, Cisco CSR 1000v
MikroTik CRS Series
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Under Armour, HealthSparq, Adobe
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Cloud Services Router vs. MikroTik Cloud Router Switch and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.